Using YouTube to Create and Post Videos into Your Course

This tutorial will walk you through the steps needed to produce and post a video into a Blackboard course with your ASU YouTube account! These steps apply for both instructors (into discussion boards and content items) and students (into discussion boards).

The easiest way to do this is to use a smartphone with the YouTube app installed. The steps outlined in this article follow the assumption that you have a smartphone available, but if not, there are free programs on PCs (e.g., Microsoft Movie Maker) and Macs (e.g., iMovie) to help you create a video using your webcam and upload the movie file into YouTube. Here’s a helpful resource from ASU’s Knowledge Base on video recording and sharing if you don’t have access to a smartphone: Video Recording and Sharing

Your first step is to create a YouTube channel (if you already have one, jump to step 6). Go to YouTube.com and Sign In with your ASURITE UserID.

When the sign in page opens, only type in your ASURITE email address and click “Sign In.” Do not enter a password.

A new window will appear where you can add your ASURITE password, then click “Sign In.” This is the final step needed to sign into your ASU YouTube account!

Once you hit “Sign In” from the previous step, you’ll be taken back into YouTube. Notice that your icon shows you that you are signed in! You’re now ready to create your channel and begin creating and uploading videos.

The next screen gives you the option of trimming the ends of the video or adding a filter. Click “Next” in the top right of the screen to move on.

Give your video a title and select the privacy level of your video. “Unlisted” is recommended, as your video will be viewable in Blackboard but the public will not be able to see your video in your profile or search for it. “Public” means everyone can search for and see your video while “Private” means your video is only accessible by you and not your class. Click “Upload” at the top right when you’re finished.

You’ve now uploaded your video to YouTube. You’ll now need to grab the embed code to link to the video in Blackboard. Go to www.youtube.com and go to your channel to find the video.

A. Click on the icon in the top left with three bars. This will open your control panel

B. Click on “My Channel”

C. Click on “Videos” in your channel. This will bring up a list of your videos. Click on the one you just created or loaded.

Copy the embed code below the video using these steps:

A. Click on the “Share” option

B. Click on the “Embed” option

C. Copy the embed code (iframe)

Navigate to Blackboard and select the course you’d like to embed your video into. In this case, we are going to embed the video into a new discussion thread for a course introduction. Once you are in your course, follow these steps:

A. Navigate to Discussion Board

B. Select Forum

C. Click “Create Thread”

D. Click the “HTML” page (See Screen Shot Below)

Paste your video’s embed code into the new HTML window that appears and click update!

Note: Make sure you Pop-Up-Blocker is disabled for Blackboard!

You will now see a Yellow Box in the text editor. This means your video has been embedded. Add any text to the post as you see fit or simply click “Submit.”

All Done!!! Now, others will be able to view and respond to your video!

*This article was updated on 1/6/16 after the discontinuation of YouTube’s function to directly upload from a webcam.*